232 



In the month of August, when flies are numerous in the apartments, 

 I used every day to kill three scores of them which I deposited on a 

 piece of paper in a corner and my boarders would not fail to attend the 

 feast. A big spider was given to them and they liked it so much that 

 by the next day the abdomen had all disappeared; the solid parts, the 

 thorax and feet, remained entire. Sugared fruits and chocolate receive 

 their attention also, but they do not damage them particularly, these 

 substances being too hard for their mandibles. Fallen crumbs answer 

 their purpose better. They do not seem to meet in numbers to carry 

 the least piece of anything away to their nest ; they seem to be sure 

 they will always find something to feed on in our houses. Undoubtedly 

 they disgorge to their larvae the fluid part of the substances they have 

 eaten. No one realizes how little such small animals want. 



Up to September 15 I had not perceived either males or females. I 

 then decided to use a more succulent bait, and tried ox liver ; I placed 

 a few bits of 5 or 6 centimeters in diameter on a paper, and three or 

 four times a day I shook the paper in a benzine box ; thousands of neu- 

 ters dropped, and at last some males and females. After eight days of 

 search I had taken 20 females, only one of which was winged, and 8 males. 

 From the 16th of September to the 9th of October I captured 131 females, 

 of which two were winged, and 60 males (about 6 females and 3 males 

 per day) ; from the 10th to the 15th of October I captured 269 females 

 and 90 males (about 54 females and 18 males per day); then the number 

 decreased, and from the 15th to the 25th of October I caught only 159 

 females, 3 of which were wiuged, and 74 males (about 16 females and 

 7 males per day). In ail, from the 15th of September to the 25th of 

 October I had therefore captured 577 females, only 14 of which were 

 winged, and 239 males. 



In order to know approximately the number of neuters I had taken I 

 counted 1,000 of them, of which the weight was 0.058 gram ; 1 gram 

 would therefore contain about 17,000, and as I had gathered 20.56 grams 

 it gives a total of 349,500 neuterc secured in six weeks (about 9,000 per 

 day), and this figure is rather below the reality, for I have killed or 

 thrown into the fire a great many of them that were not weighed. 



However large these figures may seem, the supply was not exhausted, 

 and every day I saw just as many neuters ; the number of the sexual 

 individuals only diminished. I then lifted the wash-board and two 

 boards of the inlaid floor, hoping to find there larvaB and nymphs in their 

 cocoons, but I was disappointed, for defts in the wall showed me that 

 the progeny of my ants were undoubtedly iu the thick wall or in my 

 neighbor's house. 



I said at first that the injury by these small beings was almost inap- 

 preciable; only the abdomen of a spider had been destroyed, as also 

 the abdomen of a few flies slightly eaten. The bits of raw liver I used 

 as baits did not look damaged after a few days' service, though they 

 were every day covered with ants which fed probably only on blood at 



